Section: Cyprus
Nervous Baltics on war footing as NATO tries to deter Russia
Leaders in the Baltic countries and Poland fear the force NATO plans to deploy on their territory is too small and symbolic to deter an attack by Russia, whose 2014 annexation of Crimea is fresh in the memories of the former Soviet-bloc states. They will this week press other ministers of the western military alliance to help them build an air...
‘Remain’: Yes to change, but from the inside
By Steve Cawood “An analogue union in a digital age” was the headline under which Brian Lait set out his arguments for a so-called Brexit (Sunday Mail, March 20) and he has since gone on to write further columns. He began in intellectual, even scholarly, style – but in the end the arguments are just simplistic generalisations. That’s not a...
Russia: We will respond to entry of U.S. naval vessel into Black Sea
The Russian Foreign ministry said Moscow would respond to a U.S. naval ship’s entry into the Black Sea with unspecified measures, saying it and other deployments were designed to ratchet up tensions ahead of a NATO summit, the RIA news agency reported. Russian state media reported that the USS Porter, a U.S. naval destroyer, entered the...
Ukraine says detained man planned attacks on Euro 2016 in France
Ukraine’s state security service said on Monday a French citizen detained in late May on the Ukrainian-Polish border had been planning attacks in France to coincide with the Euro 2016 football championship it is hosting. On Saturday the Ukrainian border guard service reported the unnamed 25-year-old had been arrested with an arsenal of...
Passengers and crew injured in turbulence on Malaysia Airlines flight from London
Malaysia Airlines said on Sunday that passengers and crew on a flight from London to Kuala Lumpur suffered minor injuries because of severe turbulence. Malaysia Airlines flight MH1, carrying 378 passengers and crew, experienced “a brief moment of severe turbulence” over the Bay of Bengal, the company said in a statement. A “small number” of...
EU’s Juncker plans to visit Russia in June
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has agreed to attend an event in Russia next month, a Commission spokeswoman said on Monday, in a move that may stir debate on the EU’s fraught relations with Moscow. “President Juncker has been invited and plans to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 16,”...
Sixteen killed in house fire in village near Kiev
Sixteen people have been killed and one is missing after a fire broke out in a residential building housing elderly people in a village near Kiev, Ukraine’s state emergency service said in a statement on Sunday. It said the fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning in a privately-owned two-storey building that was temporarily...
Kremlin: Savchenko’s release won’t accelerate warming in EU-Russia ties
President Vladimir Putin has consistently expressed his willingness to improve ties with the European Union, the Kremlin said on Thursday, but the release of Ukrainian Nadiya Savchenko from a Russian jail is unlikely to make this task easier. Savchenko’s handover on Wednesday, in return for two Russian prisoners, had been demanded by the...
Ukraine’s Poroshenko to oversee Savchenko prisoner swap on Wed -Interfax
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will arrive in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in the next few hours where jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko will be exchanged for Russian prisoners held by Kiev, Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying. The post Ukraine’s Poroshenko to oversee Savchenko prisoner swap on Wed -Interfax...
Russia, Ukraine commit to Minsk accords in call with France, Germany
The leaders of Russia and Ukraine discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President preparations to hold elections in an eastern Ukrainian area hit by a pro-Russian insurrection, according to the German government. Progress on implementing the Minsk peace accords, negotiated by Berlin and Paris, has stalled. The elections...
